The Microeconomic Foundations of Aggregate Production Functions

Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13362

Authors: David Rezza Baqaee; Emmanuel Farhi

Abstract: Aggregate production functions are reduced-form relationships that emerge endogenously from input-output interactions between heterogeneous producers and factors in general equilibrium. We provide a general methodology for analyzing such aggregate production functions by deriving their first- and second-order properties. Our aggregation formulas provide non-parameteric characterizations of the macro-elasticities of substitution between factors and of the macro bias of technical change in terms of micro sufficient statistics. They allow us to generalize existing aggregation theorems and to derive new ones. We relate our results to the famous Cambridge-Cambridge controversy.

Keywords: No keywords provided

JEL Codes: No JEL codes provided


Causal Claims Network Graph

Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.


Causal Claims

CauseEffect
microeconomic behaviors (D01)aggregate production functions (E23)
individual producers (J54)aggregate production functions (E23)
microeconomic elasticities (D12)macroeconomic outcomes (E66)
micro-level changes (O12)macro-level dynamics (E16)

Back to index